Hey, posting this both help out a friend and push down my journal from two years ago xD

Naughty by Nature did an awesome pic for me in my gallery and is currently open for commissions. Highly recommend checking her out.

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8916903/

Haha, looks like it's been a year since the last journal and once again the reason for an update is a move. I somehow managed to score a sweet new job in Denver and have just finished moving down and getting settled into my new place that's on the edge of Denver and Aurora. Day one of new job is tomorrow so here's hoping I don't flame out royally! ^-^'

I really was enjoying myself in Coeur d'Alene but opportunity came knocking so I went for it. I'm hoping this is my last major move for awhile, saying good bye to everybody you know does get old after a couple times of doing it. But in any case I'm pretty excited for Denver, there's a far bigger furry community here and I'm excited to get know the furs down here better. Hopefully I'll get to meet some more of you in person *and* I'm excited for how much easier it will be to visit friends back in the Midwest as well :D

Well, I finally did it. 3 weeks shy of 11 years in Fargo and I finally watch it recede over the horizon in the rear view mirror. For something I wanted so badly for so long, it really was hard to leave. Living somewhere that long is like that old pair of shoes, they're comfortable and they fit perfectly. I have amazing friends there, loved my house and I know all the haunts and places to go. But it was time to go, and had been for awhile.

Coeur d'Alene wasn't on the list of places I was hoping to move to but it has been great so far, full of incredibly friendly people (still need to sniff out some furs) and one of the most gorgeous places I've ever seen. My only complaint I could make is how remote it is, I'm two hours behind everyone from back home and flying out of here is about as expensive as Fargo, which suuuuuucks. So we'll see. I'm at a crossroads at life and my career, I have an 8 month lease and in that time I'll have to decide if this is a place I want to settle down or if I should make the last leap to Denver.

Decisions, decisions...

Got all the spaces filled, thanks to everybody who gave signal boosts!

Soooooooo, do to some unexpected events I have two room slots open for FWA this year, checking in 4/9 and checkout on 4/13.

Room is two doubles, so basically a bed is open.

Not looking for floor space guests. Each spot is $150 bucks

Basic rules of hygiene apply. Not looking to really host parties and you're responsible for any guests you bring. Drinking is fine. No drugs in the room.

When I get the cash you get your key.

Comment or Note me if interested.

At my parents, going through junk in my room I found:

A letter from a friend whose friendship I thought would never fade, and then did pretty much immediately after said letter was written. Best friends for over a decade.

The note I wrote down for the animal control officer I later called to ask if they still had the dog I had found. I went on to adopt and had said dog for the next six years until he died.

Number for the apartment complex I eventually moved into when I landed my first grown up job.

The notes I took when I finally set out to buy my dream car after graduating college, including the one I circled and eventually bought, drove for 3 years and sold to buy a house.

And my SNES complete care kit.

So much nostalgia.

So much life.

Going to be putting up a few more pictures/sketches over the next few days, been a little lazy about posting them.
Standard "I didn't draw any of these" disclaimer, they are all artists I commissioned.
Also, mulling over what other cons I may hit this year, I'm going to Furry Migration in Minneapolis this fall, other than that I've been toying with trying to attend RF, or maybe AC but still kinda waiting to see who all is going to those.

This trip was ah, quite the ride.

I flew out Tuesday night and crashed on my friend's couch for a few days leading up to the con. I took the opportunity to wander about downtown San Francisco with all the extra time I had. Downtown San Francisco was awesome, I had a lot of fun wandering amongst the skycrapers. I will say it became pretty obvious pretty fast that bathrooms are a commodity strictly controlled in that city >.>

In any case I eventually hopped the F-train (giggity) to the Castro (gay district) because come on, had to see that. Hopping off the train the first thing I saw was an older dude, probably in his late 40s wandering around with nothing more than a tiny sock covering his junk. I'll concede he wasn't in bad shape for his age, but still, didn't need to see that. After processing that I started walking down the hill toward a famous desert place called "Hot cookie" but while doing so a shirtless gentlemen in a wheelchair started rolling alongside me down the hill making pleasant small talk. I'm pretty reserved and not used to talking to randoms on the street, so when I went past an atm I politely excused myself and let him roll on by. I did feel a tinge of regret in letting go the opportunity for a friendly local to show me around, but oh well. I wandered down the big main drag and the side street which pretty much is the heart of the Castro area. Very charming, very gay. Definitely a place that would have been more fun to explore with a few adventurous friends along. Alas. Up to this point I'd been out for six hours and still hadn't found place with a decent bathroom so I stopped in a little health shake shop called Frapez (could see the bathroom door from the street). Ordered a large Mango shake out of guilt and man, was that thing gross. Room temperature with yogurt in it, absolutely not sweet or really enjoyable in any way. So I'm walking back up the street sipping on my nasty shake (was six bucks after all), when I run into my wheelchair friend from earlier. He didn't really have anything going on that day and was pretty much just cruising the block and talking to random people to talk to. Sooo I chatted with him a few more minutes (mostly polite small talk) before he asked me back to his place. In fairness he wasn't bad looking, but ah, not quite my style to go home with random dudes on the street. So, blushing a lot I made up whatever I could and continued on my way, ditching that nasty-ass shake and getting a root beer float from "Orphan Andy's" which was probably my favorite stop I made in the area.

Beating it back to downtown San Francisco I walked around Pier 39 (overall a stupid waste of time, although the sea lions were interesting to watch for a few minutes). After that I hopped a classic 30s style cable car and got to ride it from start to finish past Lombard Street and Chinatown, which are two places I think I would like to spend more time in next time I'm there. The sun went down at that point and I took the Caltrain back to my friend's town where we met some people at an unlimited sushi place (which was awesome btw).

Thursday was mostly packing up for the con and getting down there. Picked up a buddy from the airport and hit a few parties that evening. Friday was fun too, for the most part. I got to meet an online friend for the first time irl and the dance competition was an awesome show.

It got interesting *after* the competition however, when an older heavy-set guy passed me note whispering "read it later" before walking off into the crowd. I posted a picture of the note on twitter but it ended with 'before I die I have to have you" and everything else in the note before that was equally 1 part flattering and 9 parts creepy. So that was a little off-putting but I rolled with it.

So the next part of the night got a little weirder, I happened to be at a place where there were a few babyfurs. Not my thing, but whatever floats your boat. I was making small talk with one of them, when I noticed the other two on a bed, the one clearly about to give the other a "change". Now again, what you do behind closed doors is your business, but if you are in the presence of somebody you barely know, you might want to ask if they're cool with it. Saying "Just talk to me and try not to think about it" does not make it ok. So I chugged my drink and walked out of that. All I can say is I still have nothing against babyfurs, but like regular furries you need to be respectful of others and that not everyone is into that. Because what the actual fuck that was disturbing.

That whole night kinda threw me off for Saturday, which was just kind of a late day anyway due to hangover. Nothing really majorly bad or good went down until the evening when I was hanging around outside the main convention area waiting for a friend who was in the Masquerade to perform. While I was out there the creeper dude from the day before found me and started talking to me and reaaaaaaaaallly managed to enrage me, unsettle me and by the end just his voice made my skin crawl. Fucker wouldn't take no for an answer, and was offering money for a weekend "together" and just getting really gross so I finally had to leave before I freaked out on him. Asshole was married too. The rest of the night was a blur, but I was drunk and angry and I'm lucky I had some good friends keeping an eye on me.

By Sunday I was pretty burned out, just kinda made it through the day so I could go home Monday. 17 hours in airports/airplanes later I made it back.

Tuesday was a nice recovery day and I actually am looking forwardto having a return of normalcy.

MFF was awesome. The following week was been set aside for hangover recovery and I think I'm about there. It took two full days after getting back to be back at 100%. The con was great, maybe partied a little hard but got to hang with some cool people. I'm not giving a blow-by-blow of the con, but it was great and makes me want to do more of them. I'm definitely going to hit up Further Confusion this January.

Heh, been a weird pre-MFF so far. I was supposed to leave this afternoon after I did an oil change on my car. But in the process of doing so, I broke an oil sensor that made my dash light up all angry at me. Not willing to drive a few hundred miles at night with that on, I spent the next two hours figuring out what part I needed, where to get it and then how to put it in. It doubled the cost of my oil change, but as a result of the extra time I was stuck here my roommate  tilerin was able alter his travel plans to ride down with me instead of driving separately. Which is awesome.

Moral of the story? Even after I broke my car I didn't let it bother me and now a friend and I are both better off for the delay it caused. So call it one more life lesson on not to sweat the little things.

To those you going to MFF, see ya there!

Just got home from a weekend at the parent's. Definitely was nice to have a break and be spoiled a little bit. Drove through a pretty cool storm on the way down too ^^

Being back home was fun. Even my old room had changed a lot XD The parents claimed they would keep it just the way I had it, but there's an old exercise bike, some lawn furniture, and an old Mexican poncho that would beg to differ... I've decided to let it go as long as I can still get to my bed.

it was nice to just get out of my own life and take a breather. I should do that more often.

Starting to write journals. Mostly going to use them to record stuff like trips. Won't all be totally furry but there should be at least something furry related going down.

Trip to Arkansas

tl dr: Flew to Arkansas and drove car I bought back to North Dakota.

So I like to buy cars. I've owned 12 and generally buy older ones, fix them up and then sell them (usually breaking even but that's it) for 2012 I decided to make a new years resolution not to buy cars, and it was good.

2013 I made the mistake of telling a furiend what I'd buy next and in 5 minutes he sends me a link to an eBay listing for a Jeep that was for sale for a low price and with low mileage down in Arkansas. Being weak minded, I went for it and a day later the car is mine and I had a one way ticket to Little Rock.

Fast forward to travel day, my roommate Tilerin was kind enough to give me a lift to the airport. Being irresponsible, I was up until about 2 am Thursday night and had to get up at 4:15 am for my 5:54 am flight. So I was tired but figured I'd sleep on the plane. I got to the airport with barely enough time to get to the gate before boarding. The boarding start time comes and goes... and a half hour passes by with nobody telling us anything (all of the other flights there are leaving on time). Finally, after 40 minutes they finally board us, once that is done and it feels like we're about to leave they move us back up toward the terminal to de-ice the jet. So we arrive in Chicago an hour late and I miss my connecting flight by a good twenty minutes. It's only 8:30 in the morning so I go to their customer service desk and ask about the next flight out. The best they could get me was a 12:30 departure, a whole four hours after my original flight. So naturally I'm pissed, but at least they gave me a ten dollar lunch voucher for my trouble.

So now I have 4 hours to kill at the airport. I text, I tweet I explore Chicago's lovely O'Hare airport. The exhibit about Buck O'Hare was pretty cool, but mostly I was looking for a quieter area to sneak in some sleep, since I'm still running on about 2 hours of it. The place is just crazy busy and loud, it's snowing outside so there's a lot of delayed flights and people sitting around. I eventually give up on sleep and decide to grab some lunch, luckily enough they have a Johnny Rocket's and hey, I have my free lunch ticket. I wait in line, order... voucher doesn't work, register says it was already used. *rages inside* I go back to customer service desk and they are genuinely embarrassed by it not working and give me two more. Go back to the same place, same cashier and make the same order. No dice. I'm at the idegaf point but since I have nothing but time to kill, I go back to the customer service desk one more time. I get an actual supervisor this time, because as far as their system is concerned they've given me 30 bucks in free lunches already. Apparently they're having all kinds of system issues and yeah. their solution was to print new vouchers on a different printer. Off I go to Johnny Rockets and luckily one of them works, I get my free burger and shake thinking "it sure would be nice to tell them that one finally worked, but I have to catch my flight." Luckily, fate intervened and my flight was delayed two hours, allowing me plenty of time to go chat up their front desk. They were pretty mortified and appreciated me coming back and not flipping out on them, so they gave me a $50 voucher for a future United flight. Didn't give me the six hours of my life back that I lost but was still a nice gesture.

So my actual flight to Arkansas was packed, since I don't think I was the only one who missed a connecting flight that day. They also changed the departure gate for the flight *5* times. When I finally got settled at the final gate, I had a few minutes to people watch. There was an alarming number of cowboy hats, but honestly there one person who stood out. It was an obese woman with an extremely large booty and biiiiig legs. Her choice of clothing? Spongebob squarepants skin tight pajama pants, like the stretchy kind. I could easily see her pink underwear through it >.< She had her baby with her who was wearing Elmo themed pajama pants. It was beautiful and horrifying in a way. So anyway, soon we were boarding and since I had been re-booked I knew I wasn't getting a window seat which the inner child in me still prefers. I walk down the aisle to my seat and to my horror I see my neighbor is that extremely large woman from the gate. Her child is small enough for her to hold on her lap rather than have its own seat.. >.< Thankfully she left her armrest down which kept most of her rolls on her side but I had still had a leg in the aisle for the entire flight. Also, at some point her child soiled itself, and rather than trying to stuff herself into the bathroom she changed the baby on her on lap. Right next to me. When the stewardess came to take anybody's trash before landing, the lady neatly dropped the dirty diaper in her empty soda cup and passed it over me into the trash. Yeah, I couldn't get off that plane fast enough >.<

Little Rock has a nice little airport, for some reason there are pictures of their city council all over the place, kinda reminded me of countries where dictators like their portraits on every wall, but whatever. My ride was twenty minutes late, but after losing six hours already I just didn't care. I was a little apprehensive about meeting the guy, he had a hilarious redneck accent on the phone and his name was Noel. I really thought (and maybe hoped a little) that I might be getting picked up in a lifted redneck truck. But he shows up in a brand new Tahoe and is dressed like he just came from a board meeting. Thanks to traffic I had an hour to chat with the guy, learned he used to be a police chief and now is mayor of his little town. Was a very pleasant chat. The car was as good as he had represented, so I gave him a check for all of my money and hit the road.

Since I was leaving six hours late, I didn't get as far as I planned. I had a furiend in a small town north of Little Rock I had wanted to meet (never met irl before so that was really fun), so I got that far Friday night and grabbed pizza with him. Ended up staying at a hotel and taking off the next morning. Won't lie, small town Arkansas is gorgeous but I've never been anywhere in the country where I felt like I stood out so much as being "not from around here". Was a weird, somewhat disconcerting feeling.

Saturday I drove about ten hours, got to see lovely Missouri, Kansas (Kansas City looked sweet), Nebraska and South Dakota. Was a beautiful day and easy drive. Got to Sioux Falls, SD at around 10pm, crashed at my parents place and had a lazy night. Sunday I got on the road a bit late, the last 240 miles to Fargo really sucked. Freezing rain, blowing snow and black ice. Felt the back of my car start coming around twice going at highway speeds >.< definitely was some white knuckle driving. But I made it back to Fargo and as I crossed into the city limits, my trip meter rolled over 1000 and the orchestral version of Final Countdown started playing on the radio. It was pretty badass.

Despite the weirdness it was a fun trip, the memories from stuff going wrong are usually the best and this trip was no exception. Also, gold star if you read this entire thing. I might need to learn to be more succinct in future journals X3